SunnO)))

polystyle

Well-known member
Ok Dissentians
Was there already a thread on SunnO))) and the recent release "Black One" ?
If not - and if you haven't heard this ( at least a cut or two , even an mp3 from the Southern Lord site)
and if you like it heavy,
this one sets the mood for another summer under Bush
Check out "It Took The Night To Believe" and tell me what you think people ...

Burial's release and this new SunnO))) make a nice summer combo , come to think of it

And then there's the Boris Album PINK.
Some good to great musik there , the first 5 songs or so take you on a ride through the subgenre's around MBV , Stooges and I dunno what else

And oh yea, you may want to burn something before listening
or after ... heh

Now Listening : Orthodox Caveman
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
Great band, great label (Southern Lord)-- have you heard Khanate? (same label, half of Sunn0))) plus others) they're like improv-metal (not actually sure if they are fully improvised, but they certainly sound it... less droning, more shrieking.

Apparently Sunn0))) have a dubstep level (and more???) of bass pressure in their live form... along with a suitably Tap-esque stage presence...
 

mms

sometimes
sunn 0))s live performances do indeed have that bass thing but it a much spookier experience than dubstep- alot more isolationist .
in sunn as well as when the other groups steve o[ malley does such as ginnungagap they wear grimm robes.


quite an event

this to me is boris' best album its really quite a record http://www.essence-music.com/


stephen o malley's site here shows off his really great design too http://www.ideologic.org/

earth 3 has just been re-released on vinyl too which is nice.
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
Hmm its sposed to be more trance inducing, is it not (altho a less rhythmical dubstep on higher powered subs would be just as trance inducing)? A dubstep-drone metal crossover seems like such an obvious idea (keeping the grimmed out-elements of both, but without the machismo)...

And yeh- O'Malley's design stuff is fucking great, (asides from the press adverts for DaVinci Code- oh well got to pay those bills somehow I guess) the "Black 1" cover especially kind of subverts standard metal imagery by taking it far more seriously than it perhaps deserves, ends up making it look utterly beautiful (and none-more black)...
 

mms

sometimes
gek-opel said:
Hmm its sposed to be more trance inducing, is it not (altho a less rhythmical dubstep on higher powered subs would be just as trance inducing)? A dubstep-drone metal crossover seems like such an obvious idea (keeping the grimmed out-elements of both, but without the machismo)...

And yeh- O'Malley's design stuff is fucking great, (asides from the press adverts for DaVinci Code- oh well got to pay those bills somehow I guess) the "Black 1" cover especially kind of subverts standard metal imagery by taking it far more seriously than it perhaps deserves, ends up making it look utterly beautiful (and none-more black)...


yeah seen em a couple of times and it feels like an 'opening of the liminal mind' experience, egoless and intense but isolationist - it feels very 'body focussed' but not particulary body within a group focussed get me ?- probably because there is no rhythm to move with, which is where it differs from dubsteps bass, its spookier as you don't dance to it .
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
So its more transcendental, and less intersubjective I take it? The recent mimimalism audio visual thing at the Tate reminded me a bit of this, only really Alva Noto's set, which was based around massively distorted chords and sub, at times being held on a single chord for minutes at a time- its definitely a more personal effect without the presence of rhythm...
 

mms

sometimes
gek-opel said:
So its more transcendental, and less intersubjective I take it? The recent mimimalism audio visual thing at the Tate reminded me a bit of this, only really Alva Noto's set, which was based around massively distorted chords and sub, at times being held on a single chord for minutes at a time- its definitely a more personal effect without the presence of rhythm...

sort of, it more defines the space around you in a very interesting way, in that bodies around you and your own seem to loose some weight, you feel slightly physically paranoid i guess, in that your mind retreats inside your body especially to your head and chest.
its quite intense, i recently went into a mock up of a haunted house that had sub frequencies and electromagnets in it as part of an experiment in recording these effects and the feeling was similar to some of the feelings in this experiment, which were caused by generated effects.
it's quite easy to artificially enduse all kinds of meditational type states i think.
 

polystyle

Well-known member
mms , thanks for the O'Malley link ,
was digging the design for Black One ...

And Gek , no haven't heard Khanate - yet but sounds good

Both SunnO))) and Boris got a big article in the New York Times Sunday mag May 28 and they played here last Tue's night @ the former Limelight (now Avalon) , itself an old church.
Can imagine O'Malley sized it up as the proper gig spot ...
Glad he's here in town now , helps stir things up

Got to catch 'em next time they come through tho'
The Grimm hoods and axes over the shoulder pics were a hoot , they do have a smart sense of humor
and obv luv BASS
 

zhao

there are no accidents
gek-opel said:
O'Malley's design stuff

the work for BOris is good. PSI is wonderfully strange... some of the others are not quite there yet. the thinking is not so clear, and the decisions sometimes don't work all that well. I think he will be a tiptop designer some day, if he keeps developing and polishing.

funny the use of vector geometric lines, traditional territory of Autechre type shit, in a metal context, with Gothik letters... a new juxtaposition I ain't seen before.
 
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matt b

Indexing all opinion
(the mighty) thrones are playing in birmingham at the supersonic festival in july.
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
@ Confucius: yeah, its like a hyper clean tech-design take on metal, very tasteful but weirdly that mirrors the listening experience of Sunn0))) very nicely, I listen to them in the same way as late era Autechre (also there is some kind of inter band love as Autechre got Sunn0))) to play at their ATP...)
 

OldRottenhat

Active member
I think the slowness of Sunn O))) live is a key part of the experience - the space between chords is so far beyond what you're conditioned to expect by other music that you lose sense of time and structure, and can focus only on the wash of slowly decaying distortion. You feel drugged, the air feels thick with sound, and your attention is consumed by the smallest gestures of the cowled figures on stage. The tension when you see them incline towards each other, lift their hands almost in slow motion and then drive them across the strings...it's really something. I can't think of any other guitar bands who seem to be so interested in sound right now.
 

carlos

manos de piedra
haven't seen Sunn 0))) live yet but i did see Khanate here in houston a couple of years ago

O'Malley had a three of his Sunn amp heads (see photo) and it was seriously one of the loudest shows i've ever been too. the venue was an older warehouse and they made the walls literally shake- and dirt and debris was slowly floating out of the ceiling and beams

they're as much an amp band as a guitar band-

03.jpg
 

polystyle

Well-known member
Got to ck Khanate , thanks for the pic Carlos
And Rotten - nice description of 'live'
These cats are onto something - and I like it ...

Feels like a shaded summer coming on
hurricanes , monsoons , volcanos erupting
and Black One and Boris' PINK playing bk to bk
 

throughsilver

Well-known member
confucius said:
the work for BOris is good.
Personally I prefer the aesthetic that Boris does for themselves, i.e. the Japanese Pink, or Heavy Rocks/Flood.

I like Sunn(o))) a lot, might prefer Khanate (I reviewed them for my blog, when they supported Melt-Banana recently). In terms of doomy albums from last year, I heartily recommend the relatively little-known Hyatari. Their album was one song, divided into a bunch of tracks, and is such great slow-build Metal. Definitely worth a listen (especially the track 'Harvesting Sod').

Still gutted I missed out on the recent Sunn(o)))/EARTH gig. The latter band are especially on fire of late.
 

michael

Bring out the vacuum
I've never liked metal, never really explored the permutations.. always thought it was one of those things like trance, where the defining features of the genre are the same things that preclude my liking it. BUT bleep got me to check out Bohren und der Club of Gore, who basically do deeeeathly slow jazz tracks but supposedly coming from a doom metal angle? I couldn't hear how this could possibly be anything to do with eg. Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, nor Slayer or Carcass or whoever since... But it's pretty incredible, and various comments about the slowness and solemnity of Sunn O))) seem equally applicable to Bohren...

I checked out the Earth tune available for downland on Southern Lord's site (along with almost every other MP3 there..) and really like the Earth sound... I think the instrumental approach is the one for me. Am I imagining things or does this (first track on latest album) have doom banjo action? :D Is the rest of the latest anything like this?

As with a lot of fairly static and repetitive music, seems very much like it could be incredibly boring if you're listening in the wrong situation. Obviously one of the reasons a live situation would be such a different experience, I guess.
 

throughsilver

Well-known member
michael said:
I checked out the Earth tune available for downland on Southern Lord's site (along with almost every other MP3 there..) and really like the Earth sound... I think the instrumental approach is the one for me. Am I imagining things or does this (first track on latest album) have doom banjo action? :D Is the rest of the latest anything like this?
The whole album's pretty similar; it's been dubbed 'Earth goes Country!' by less imaginative areas of the press. I love the album.

It's certainly one that requires the listener to be in a particular mindspace, though, and is very sparse (even for this stripped-down genre).
 
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